


Bleed

by naomin



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Blood, F/F, Gen, Manga Spoilers, Menstruation, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-18 16:10:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1434607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naomin/pseuds/naomin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Then she notices that Ymir’s staring at her with a look of shock that’s so unlike her that it stops Krista in her tracks.</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>“You’re bleeding,” Ymir says, sounding more than a little horrified.  </p><p>(Contains possible spoilers for recent chapters of the manga.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bleed

**Author's Note:**

> There's no actual romance in this, but I guess it could be read as pre-relationship YumiKuri, so I tagged it thusly. (Tip: You should definitely read it as pre-relationship YumiKuri.) 
> 
> This is set before most of the events of the series take place, but refers to Krista's past as described in some of the later manga chapters (really vaguely, but it's there), so beware of potential spoilers!

           

Krista feels sick.

It’s a morning just like any other, filled with the same activities that have become routine by this point, four months since Krista and the others began their training. She’s been busy - chatting with the other girls, making sure no one’s left to finish their chores alone, doing her best to keep up with the rigorous exercises they’re all subjected to – but all the while she’s been feeling…not _feverish_ , really, not quite like any illness she can remember having before, but she feels _sore_ , especially her stomach. She’s sensed that something was wrong from the moment she woke up that morning, and has simply resigned herself to it. Krista would never want to burden other people by succumbing to a simple…well, whatever it is that’s wrong with her today. Not to mention that all the new cadets know very well by this point that nothing much short of the loss of a limb is a valid excuse for a day off.  (And really, even that's something that a true soldier should be able to manage.)

So Krista’s carried on, hasn’t given a sign that anything’s out of the ordinary, even though it’s lunchtime now, and she feels even worse than she did earlier.  The dull ache in her stomach makes the food they’re given look even less appetizing than usual, so when Sasha wolfs down her own serving and starts to gaze hopefully at everyone else’s plates, it’s an easy decision.

She pushes her still-mostly-full plate across the table. “You can have the rest of this if you want, Sasha.”

Sasha’s eyes widen. “All of it?”

Krista makes herself smile and shrug like it’s no big deal, which it isn’t, really. Krista Lenz is the kind of girl who’s always happy to share with a friend, all the cadets know that by now. “I’ve had enough.”

“Are you sure?” Sasha asks, though the question would sound a bit more genuine if Sasha’s fork wasn’t already plunged possessively into Krista’s uneaten food. 

Armin, in the seat to Krista’s left, frowns at her a little. “Do you feel okay?”

“What’s wrong with Krista?” someone else seated near enough to overhear Armin asks loudly, and now everyone’s turned to look at her, expressions ranging from protective concern (Reiner) to boredom (Annie).

Krista smiles again, glancing around to make sure everyone can see it. “Nothing’s wrong! I’m just not that hungry today, I guess.” 

Even though not everybody looks convinced, it only takes a few minutes and Eren and Jean beginning a loud debate about maneuver gear techniques for the flow of conversation to move on. Krista presses the palm of one hand against her stomach under the table.

 

-

 

After lunch, Krista is about to leave when an arm falls around her shoulders, none too gently.

She turns to see Ymir staring down at her. “Yes?”

“So, poor little Krista’s not feeling good today?” Ymir drawls.

Krista tries to shrug Ymir’s arm away, ineffectively. “I already said, I’m fine. Armin was just worrying about nothing.”

“Really?” Ymir leans down, close enough that Krista can feel her breath against the side of her face. “Sleeping alright?”

Ymir’s voice sounds serious now, not teasing, but Krista stiffens. _How does she know about that?_ Krista hardly ever has the dreams about the things that happened long ago, to a girl who was not Krista Lenz. Today, however, must just be her unlucky day because last night she _did_ dream about it, a blur of people and events she can only half-remember, and finally a hot red spray that went on and on until she jerked awake, breathing hard and brushing away imaginary blood.  

Krista had thought that everyone else had been asleep, but now it looks like she's been wrong.

“I’m fine,” she says again. 

“ _Sure_.” Ymir rolls her eyes. “Never anything wrong with you, right? Not perfect little-“

It’s to Krista’s great relief when Ymir stops talking and loosens her grip as Sasha strolls towards them.

“Ready to go?” Sasha asks, chewing on the last of Krista’s abandoned piece of bread.

Krista wants nothing more than to go back to bed, to have a chance to lie down and rest free from pain and bad dreams and Ymir’s unwelcome observations. But that’s impossible, so she has to settle for brushing Ymir aside and linking arms with Sasha, and if Krista seems a little too eager to head out to their afternoon training session, at least it might set the mind of anyone who’s still wondering if she’s all right at ease.

 

-

 

Krista’s bad luck continues, however, because they’re training in the woods today, and Ymir just catches up with Krista again as soon as she finds herself somewhere slightly apart from the others.

“What were you dreaming about?” Ymir asks in an aggravatingly conversational tone, leaning against a tree trunk with her arms crossed. Krista is sitting on the ground, catching her breath, so Ymir looms over her even more than she normally does.

“I don’t even remember anymore.” 

“Liar,” Ymir scoffs. “You’ve been acting weird all day. Must have been something really nasty, huh?”

Krista wants to snap back that if she’s been acting weird, it’s because she’s _sick_ , because her stomach’s been hurting all day, and why is Ymir so interested when it’s none of her business anyway? Something like that might be a little surprising coming from sweet, friendly, Krista Lenz, but on the other hand Ymir is being absolutely _aggravating,_ and surely nobody could be expected to put up with that.

Salvation comes again, however, when the sound of a distant crash floats through the trees, followed by the sound of Marco’s raised voice.

“Connie? Are you okay!? Hey, everyone, we need help over here!” 

It turns out that a badly-judged turn has gotten a cord from Connie’s gear tangled around a branch of one of the trees they’re supposed to be navigating their way through, jerking him out of the air and against several other branches on the way to the ground. By the time Krista and Ymir make their way to the source of the call for help, a small crowd is already beginning to form.

Connie seems to be not too badly hurt for what, judging from the trail of broken branches, must have been quite a dramatic fall, but his nose is bleeding like a faucet despite his attempt to pinch it shut. Krista feels her breath catch in her throat for just a second, before firmly telling herself not to be silly. She’s Cadet Krista Lenz in the middle of a training exercise, nothing else, and a bloody nose is hardly the worst injury she’s seen even in the short period of time since their training began. 

Marco is hovering over Connie, looking a little shaken. “Is…is it broken?” Connie snaps back something unintelligibly garbled, and swats at Marco when he tries to get a closer look at Connie’s face.

“Here.” Krista steps forward. She feels a little burst of self-reproach for thinking about her own bad dreams upon seeing a friend’s injury, especially since Connie’s nose really does look like it has to hurt. She pushes aside her lingering discomfort at the blood that now covers most of the front of Connie’s shirt and kneels down, pulling a cloth out of the pocket of her jacket. It’s one of the ones they all use for cleaning their gear, but as luck would have it, it’s more or less clean right now, and Connie accepts it gratefully.

“Thanks,” he manages, voice still muffled from the blood and Krista’s cloth that’s now pressed against his face. Krista smiles, letting him know it’s no problem, and takes the opportunity to quickly look him over and be certain that there are no more serious injuries, at least nothing that her unskilled eyes can detect.

All of the cadets have gathered around by now, along with the instructor, who looks Connie up and down and confirms that the only thing wrong with him is his still sluggishly bleeding nose, accompanied by a few choice words relating the trainees’ heads to blocks of wood. He orders everybody back to their positions. Krista’s getting to her feet, relieved that everything is fine, when she happens to notice Ymir out of the corner of her eye. Ymir hasn’t begun to move away yet. Probably waiting for Krista so she can keep pestering her, _typical_ , Krista thinks wearily, and then she notices that Ymir’s staring at Krista with a look of shock that’s so unlike her that it stops Krista in her tracks.

“What is it?” 

“You’re bleeding,” Ymir says, sounding more than a little horrified.

“What?” Krista glances down, and the first thing she notices is her hands, a little red from where her fingers must have brushed against Connie’s as she handed him her cloth.

“Don’t be silly, Ymir, it’s just Connie’s-“ And then Krista looks down some more and there it is, down her leg, dark red jumping out against the white of her uniform pants.

 _My blood!_ she thinks, panic blasting through her mind even though Krista’s not ignorant, she knows what happens when you grow up. _All that blood, I’m bleeding, I’m-!_

For a second the world had seemed to shrink to nothing but red on white, but now everything’s a big blur of color, spinning out of her control. And then it’s a good thing that Sasha happens to be nearby (for the third time that day, some part of Krista’s mind that seems to be watching all this from outside her body realizes vaguely), because it’s not until Krista feels Sasha grabbing her by the arm that she realizes that she fainted, for just a second. 

Sasha’s asking her if she’s okay, voice urgent and Krista nods automatically, trying to focus on keeping her balance. She hears Ymir yelling something at the instructor. She wants to tell Ymir to quiet down, because all the other cadets are still nearby and she’ll never live down getting her period for the first time in front of everybody in the middle of the woods, but the world’s still spinning a little bit, and all of the sudden Krista feels very, very, tired.

 

-

 

There is, it turns out, _one_ way of getting out of training without losing a limb. Krista is hustled off to the infirmary, accompanied by Sasha just in case she faints again, even though she tries to say that she’s really fine, it was just the shock of seeing all that _blood_ …

At the infirmary, the girls are met by a miraculously calm and cheerful medic, who seems unsurprised by Krista’s condition.

“It happens all the time, I can’t believe they make you girls go out there in _white pants_ of all things, I mean, honestly! Is this your first time, dear?”

Krista nods. Her stomach still hurts, and she’s embarrassed, and most of all she wants to change clothes as quickly as possible.

The medic examines her more closely. “How old are you?” 

“Twelve.” Sasha supplies quickly, before Krista can get the word out. Sasha is jittery with nervous energy, always watching Krista as if she expects her to collapse again.

“Oh,” the medic says. Her next words are careful, and a little awkard. “You know…how these things work, don't you? When you become a woman, and your body changes-“

“I know.” Krista interrupts. She can recall someone telling her about it once, a faint, friendly, memory of an older girl, who she somehow can’t remember anything else about no matter how hard she tries. Krista’s head feels heavy and slow, thoughts jumbled. 

The medic looks visibly relieved. “Good. Your mother had you all prepared for this before you joined, did she?”

“Yes,” Krista lies, and then she bursts into tears so suddenly that she's shocked at herself.

 

-

 

The medic handles the situation with practiced confidence, reassuring an alarmed Sasha that Krista will be fine, sending her back to the training grounds, and finding Krista a change of clothes, something to soak up the blood, and an empty bunk to rest in. Krista stops crying after only a few minutes, and after that she finds that she feels better than she has all day. At last, she can lie down and rest, without having to worry about responsibilities or training or talking to anyone for a while.

Her stomach still feels bad, but somehow she manages to fall asleep anyway, because the next thing she knows, the light coming through the window is slanted and yellow-orange like it’s almost the end of the day.

She’s been woken up by the sound of footsteps drawing closer, and when she turns her head, it’s not quite a surprise when she sees Ymir, looking down at her with a furrowed brow, and holding a large mug.

“Hi.” Krista says, when Ymir says nothing at first. She feels very calm, and still slightly asleep.

“They told me to give this to you…” Ymir replies, thrusting the mug in Krista’s direction as Krista pushes herself up into a sitting position, “…If you were having cramps.”   Her words sound a little stilted, maybe because she’s clearly just repeating someone else’s instructions, though it still seems as if there’s still something just a little bit _off_ about Ymir. Krista remembers the look on her face in the forest earlier.

She takes the mug. It’s hot, and has a strong herbal scent that she doesn’t recognize. “Thanks.”

“So you _are_ having cramps?” Ymir asks, sounding curious now. “Does it hurt?” 

Krista takes a sip of her drink, scrunching up her face as a bitter flavor fills her mouth. She sets the mug aside for later, before turning back to face Ymir. “Yes. I was feeling like that all day, but I thought I was just getting sick.”

“Oh,” Ymir says, digesting this information. There’s silence for a moment, and then she adds, somewhat self-consciously. “I’m sorry for saying all that stuff, earlier. Didn’t know you were sick.” Ymir gestures at Krista vaguely “Or…whatever.”

“It’s okay.” 

Another silence, broken when Ymir snorts with laughter. “You should have seen everyone after you left. Some of the guys looked like _they_ were going to faint.”

“Mmm,” Krista pushes the confirmation that yes, _everybody_ knew what happened, aside for the time being. She lies back down. “So did you.” 

“Hey, it was just…just a surprise, okay?” Ymir protests. Krista nods, feeling agreeable. She can’t see Ymir’s face right now, and wonders vaguely if she’s blushing, wonders if Ymir ever blushes or gets embarrassed about anything.

The bed shifts suddenly as Ymir sits down, and then there’s a hand pressing down against Krista’s shirt on her stomach, firm but not painful. Krista blinks, startled, and looks up at Ymir, who’s staring back down at her, brown eyes intent.

“Is this where it hurts?” Ymir asks.

“Yes.” Krista’s too tired right now to ask Ymir why on earth she’d go and put her hand right there, if she thought it was going to hurt. Ymir’s hand doesn't feel bad, though. It’s warm and solid and soothing, in the same way that Krista’s own hand had helped the pain a little earlier. “But that feels good.”

“Hm.” Krista can feel Ymir moving, adjusting her position until she’s seated more solidly on the bed, one hand still resting on Krista.

“Ymir?” Krista doesn’t really understand what’s going on, but she still feels drowsy and relaxed in a way that she hasn’t felt in a very long time. The infirmary bed isn’t exactly luxurious, but it’s good enough, and now even her stomach doesn't feel so bad anymore.

“Go back to sleep.” The hand on Krista’s stomach gives a little squeeze. 

It’s an easy request to follow, and before long Krista’s asleep again. This time, she dreams of nothing.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Just an idea that popped into my mind, so I wrote this really quickly as a break from working on other things. I'm not really sure about it (first time writing most of these characters, and I feel like the ending is kind of awkward) but I've decided to just post it and be done!
> 
> My first fic here that isn't for a kinkmeme prompt, though I suppose it does owe a debt to the many prompts/headcanons/etc. about the fun times that must occur when you're going through puberty in the fantasy military. 
> 
> This ended up being relevant to this fic exactly 0%, but as I was writing this I also had the random idea that Ymir doesn't menstruate because...Titan biology? I'm not sure if that even makes sense, but then again, if people can write the shifter kids as going into heat periodically for fanfic purposes, I think I can have that much, haha.


End file.
